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Wii U: Is it worth buying?
Adrian Recchi - 22 February 2019 Introduction The Wii U is a home video game console that was released in 2012 by Nintendo. While having some redeeming features such as backwards compatibility and HD graphics, the console was poorly received and is not considered a successful product. Compared to previous video game consoles released by Nintendo, the Wii U did not perform well commercially. Controls The Wii U introduces a unique controller that has its own screen and has touch functionality called the Gamepad. While these are impressive features for a controller, they create some notable drawbacks. The screen is placed in the middle of the controller, consisting of buttons on both sides of the screen. This results in the Gamepad being bulky and uncomfortable to hold due to its abnormally large size and inconvenient button placement. The problem has a simple solution, as the Wii U supports a different controller type called the Wii U Pro Controller. It is designed more traditionally with buttons being easily accessible and without the screen being present. Unfortunately, having no screen also means there would be no touch functionality, which is required to play many games on the console. The Pro Controller is also not compatible with every game. On top of this, the battery life on the controllers are astonishingly low and can not last more than 3 hours without needing to be recharged. Games Upon the Wii U’s launch in 2012, the console did not have a large selection of games. It featured only 23 games, in which most of them had already been released on other existing consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3. After ending production in January 2017, the console had only 766 games available. This amount is almost less than half of what previous consoles had to offer. Furthermore, there were not many notable games among the 766 either, as only 39 of them are unique exclusively to Wii U. Multiplayer/Wifi The Wii U came with online functionality. It is one of very few consoles (the only other being Playstation 3) to offer completely free online services that do not require the user to sign into a monthly or yearly subscription. However, many core features that create a social online experience were missing, including voice chat, being able to invite friends to play games, and being able to directly message other users. Playing games online was also considerably weak due to Nintendo using a peer-to-peer network system. This meant that players would connect to each others consoles while playing instead of to a server hosted by Nintendo. If one console had a slow network, all other consoles connected would completely freeze until everyone caught up. Constant jittering and freezing caused online gameplay to range from being extremely choppy to practically unplayable. Since Wii U production ended in January 2017, Nintendo has also ceased most online functionality associated with the console. Conclusion Overall the Wii U was not considered a worthwhile purchase in 2012. Now, in 2019, after the controller limitations have been brought to light, the game library having stopped at 766 total games, and online functionality missing; there is little reason to justify buying a Wii U.